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Author Topic: Education for aboriginal students found wanting
George Victor
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posted 03 November 2008 05:07 PM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"An analysis of 2006 census data by the C.D.Howe INstitute reveals that only 60 per cent of aboriginal students aged 20 to 24 completed highschool, compared with almost 90 per cent of non-aboriginals.

"Within this average is a wide range between Inuit and on-reserve First Nations at 40 per cent, offo-reserve First Nations near the middle at 60 per cent, and Metis at the high end, with 75 per cent completion. The outcomes are widely dispersed among provinces and territories as well.

"The C.D.Howe report adopts a recommendation from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy that on-reserve schools should be administered by an education authority rather than individual ban councils and further recommends that successful strategies be expanded among off-reserve districts."

------------------------------------------

Is this something that you would care to discuss, 2 ponies, given your expressed interest in posting here a couple of days back, if other FN posters here would share opinions:


quote:

I don’t think the piece has done much to encourage discussion about the issue she was probably trying to get at; that there’s probably too much time spent discussing our FN cultures & not enough time trying to figure out how we’re going to get out of the mess we’re currently in. It’s largely considered heinous & hateful to suggest that we allocate resources to teach science, math & grammar in our FN communities than we do to teach Cree, or about Sweat Lodges & religious practices & traditional medicinal treatments. I never learned a single kilobyte of information about Cree culture in 12 years of school, but learned plenty from my mother, grandparents, aunts & uncles, Elders – all in an informal setting. But now there’s a large cultural industry developing & a significant number of FN people (at least in my part of the country) believe without question that the solution to our problems is to force every FN kid to learn an FN language & culture in school. It’s basically not even open to debate. In my view, there is a significant “drift” towards the establishment of theocracies in several FN communities; at least 75% of the meetings I go to in FN communities start off with a prayer I take offense to this type of practice because I like to decide when & how I pray; with a braid of Sweetgrass in the privacy of my home – but sometimes I’m forced to hear a prayer to Jesus (from a FN person), other times a prayer to the Creator, the point is I’m basically forced. But is this open to discussion? No. And to suggest any other practice often results in being labelled with some pejorative term. There isn’t enough debate in our communities by & large; there isn’t enough discussion on how we’re going to allocate limited resources in an effort to ensure that youth have a chance at succeeding in this rapidly changing world, for instance. There’s a significant tendency for groupthink, and disagreements are largely solved by way of finger-pointing & allegations- at least in my experience as a 32 year old FN person with 14 years working in FN communities & organizations.



This editorial today, together with a feature obit on the late Jake Tootoosis, suggests the Globe's publisher might be doing a roundabout mia culpa.

Anyway, several of us here would really like to know more ourselves. Ever since hearing Thomas Berger's report, a couple of years back, commissioned by the people of Nunavut, aimed at trying to graduate more people at the university level, I've wondered at the general interest in all levels of education.


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 03 November 2008 05:17 PM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Here's the small excerpt from the Globe's feature obit on the late Jake Tootoosis that I posted in Body and Soul:

quote:

posted 03 November 2008 07:29 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jake Tootoosis, lawyer, executive director for the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nation's treaty governance, 2004-2006, instrumental in publishing "Treaty Inplementation: Fulfilling the Covenant "(2007).
Judge David Arnot, treaty commissioner for the federal government said Mr. Tootoosis "always spoke about the treaties with this question in mind: 'What will this mean for my children? For my grandchildren and great grandchildren?'

"I always thought that was really important and interesting because that's the same question that Mistawasis and Ahtukukoop (Cree chiefs) used when they were negotiating the original treaties."

Jake Tootoosis, died Aug. 9, 2008, age 42, in Saskatoon, Sask., where he had his office.

(from Globe and Mail in-depth obit today, Nov.3, 2008)

[ 03 November 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]



From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
genstrike
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posted 03 November 2008 05:57 PM      Profile for genstrike   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Through some campaigns that I have been working on around post-secondary education issues, I know one issue is the cap on the Post-Secondary Student Support Program. Basically (and I'm probably explaining this pretty crappily), when this program was created a while back, it capped funding increases at 2%, which not only hasn't kept up with inflation, but hasn't kept up with population growth or increasing tuition either. This has resulted in some big waiting lists for aboriginal students.
From: winnipeg | Registered: May 2008  |  IP: Logged
remind
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posted 03 November 2008 06:20 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Missing link from georges post me thinks
From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
Benoit
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posted 03 November 2008 08:31 PM      Profile for Benoit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
When it comes to education, I have been impressed by the thoughts of Ivan Illich contain in Deschooling Society (Harrow Books, 1972):


Learning is the human activity which least needs manipulation by others. (p.56)

School is not only the New World Religion. It is also the world's fastest-growing labor market. (p.66)

The alternative to school would be a network which gave each man the same opportunity to share his current concern. (p.28 )

Schools pervert the natural inclination to grow and to learn. (p.87)

Schools are socially addictive. Social addiction, or escalation, consists in the tendency to prescribe increased treatment if smaller quantities have not yielded the desired results. (p.80)

School is a system of regressive taxation: the value of a man's schooling is a fonction of the number of years he has completed and of the costliness of the schools he has attended. (p.88 )

It must not start with the question, "What should someone learn?" but with the question, "What kinds of things and people might learners want to be in contact with in order to learn?" (p.111)

A good educational system should have three purposes; it should provide all who want to learn with access to available resources at any time in their lives; empower all who want to share what they know to find those who want to learn it from them; and, finally, furnish all who want to present an issue to the public with the opportunity to make their challenge known. (p.108)

It is difficult to abandon the idea that we have an obligation to the young, especially to the poor, an obligation to process them, whether by love or by fear, into a society which needs disciplined specialization as much from its producers as from its consumers. (p.97)

[ 03 November 2008: Message edited by: Benoit ]


From: Montreal | Registered: Oct 2008  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 04 November 2008 02:22 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

posted 03 November 2008 06:20 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Missing link from georges post me thinks




Thanks, remind. I lean heavily on the IT literate.


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 04 November 2008 02:47 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

It is difficult to abandon the idea that we have an obligation to the young, especially to the poor, an obligation to process them, whether by love or by fear, into a society which needs disciplined specialization as much from its producers as from its consumers. (p.97)



As you can see, (above),there has not been, and there cannot now be any thought of abandonment.

Our analysis of Illich at the time of his publication was that little applied within a larger society completely dependent on technological change, with which there had to be a working relationship. Romantic but not everywhere applicable.

Berger was out to help the Innu govern themselves, to begin with - just as he (properly) had warned FN people of the Mackenzie, a third of a century earlier, not to "buy" the pipeline offers.

At least, I offer that up as one perspective.

But I really look forward to seeing just what would have to be provided by way of RESOURCES to bring about more - if not perfect - equality of opportunity. That was the first concern of the late Christian Bay in a course devoted to social justice.(He was no Christian by the way )

[ 04 November 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 05 November 2008 07:07 AM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is difficult to abandon the idea that we have an obligation to the young, especially to the poor, an obligation to process them, whether by love or by fear, into a society which needs disciplined specialization as much from its producers as from its consumers. (p.97)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As you can see, (above),there has not been, and there cannot now be any thought of abandonment.



A meticulous avoidance of the subject, notwithstanding! Is it back to spitballs ?

[ 05 November 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Benoit
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posted 05 November 2008 12:32 PM      Profile for Benoit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by George Victor:

Our analysis of Illich at the time of his publication was that little applied within a larger society completely dependent on technological change, with which there had to be a working relationship.

To save its face our education system has to insist that automatic and artificially-intelligent technology is dependable. But no working relationship is needed with reliable autonomous robots.

[ 05 November 2008: Message edited by: Benoit ]


From: Montreal | Registered: Oct 2008  |  IP: Logged
George Victor
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posted 05 November 2008 05:04 PM      Profile for George Victor        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by George Victor:

Our analysis of Illich at the time of his publication was that little applied within a larger society completely dependent on technological change, with which there had to be a working relationship.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To save its face our education system has to insist that automatic and artificially-intelligent technology is dependable. But no working relationship is needed with reliable autonomous robots.

[ 05 November 2008: Message edited by: Benoit ]



Care to flesh that out a bit, mate? Can't respond until I'm sure where you are coming from.


From: Cambridge, ON | Registered: Oct 2007  |  IP: Logged
Benoit
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posted 05 November 2008 06:08 PM      Profile for Benoit     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by George Victor:


Care to flesh that out a bit, mate? Can't respond until I'm sure where you are coming from.


As soon as the word dependency is uttered one should at least think at a possible cure. We are not doing so in the particular case of our dependency toward technology because our education system is flawed.


From: Montreal | Registered: Oct 2008  |  IP: Logged
Makwa
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posted 06 November 2008 09:38 AM      Profile for Makwa   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Moving to FN forum, thanks for the topic.
From: Here at the glass - all the usual problems, the habitual farce | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged

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